It reminded me of Jane Eyre in setting and complexity - Review of The Curse of Morton Abbey by Clarissa Harwood

London 1897, Vaughan is the disabled daughter of a solicitor who always helped her father in his law practice. Now he is dead her mother is selling the house and planning to move in with another daughter together with Vaughan. She however wishes to be a solicitor but nobody wants to hire a female lawyer. But when the owner of an estate in Yorkshire is looking for someone to prepare it for selling it Vaughan uses her male sounding name to get hired.

It turns out to be a gloomy house in the middle of the moors with hardly any personnel and a bedridden younger brother of the owner.

I did like the novel a lot. The people are complex three dimensional persons and the story keeps you invested as there is a mysterious feel around what is going on combined with lovely caring scenes and great world building.  A bit Jane Eyre-ish.

There is however a thing I do not understand: Vaughan seems to have changed her idea of living at Morton Abbey. That making the ending a bit unexpected.

I really liked how the author treated illness and disability. No magical cures, just acceptance.



 

 

 

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